Viewing the Red Walls and Golden Tiles, Appreciating the Ming and Qing Palaces – Part 1: The Palace and Its Fortifications (Revised Edition)

My 2021 Palace Museum series, the seventeen installments of 'Viewing the Red Walls and Golden Tiles, Appreciating the Ming and Qing Palaces,' have been kindly read by many of you. Some readers offered suggestions, pointed out errors. For this revised second edition, I’ve taken those suggestions on board, enriched some content, corrected mistakes, and updated or added images. While I can't claim every error is fixed, most should be. This detailed record covers the artistry of ancient China's finest palace architecture seen at the Forbidden City, select imperial collections on display, traces of Qing court life, and also touches on some stories and legends from the Ming and Qing courts. I won't say this is 'to feast the reader'; I just hope we can share the experience. Thank you.

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In 2020, the sudden COVID-19 pandemic struck with high contagiousness, and the whole nation rose to fight it. The simplest and most effective way to resist this infectious disease was isolation – staying apart to avoid mutual transmission. So during the pandemic, gatherings had to be minimized, travel reduced. Long-distance trips were definitely to be avoided as much as possible. Unable to travel far, yet unable to cure my itch to explore, I got an annual pass for the Palace Museum, focusing on the Forbidden City. This had a great perk: an annual pass is like wholesale pricing – ten entries a year, each at half price. During the pandemic, visitor numbers were restricted, so it wasn't the usual sea of people; I didn't have to keep apologizing for stepping on someone’s heel, nor constantly crouch to pull up my shoe because someone had trodden it off. Another bonus: annual pass holders didn’t need to reserve; we could enter anytime, except Mondays when the Museum was closed for inventory. With ten visits over a year, I could see every open corner of the Forbidden City – and see it carefully. For areas not open to the public, I could circle the walls looking for cracks and glimpse what lay beyond. After that year, I simply had to write a series of posts to record my impressions and share them with readers.

Earlier I looked at Beijing’s old city walls, noting the nested layout. The outermost was the Yuan dynasty Tucheng (earth city), inside that were the Ming and Qing inner walls and the South City outer wall, further in was the Imperial City, and at the very center, the Palace City – the imperial palace. A century ago, the emperors of the palace had all moved in batches to the northern Changping, eastern Zunhua, and western Yixian, where they now rest in peace, laid to their tombs.

In Chinese history, the residence of the emperor was called a gong, a palace. The First Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s residence was called Xianyang Palace. Xianyang Palace was his home before he unified China; actually, it was a residence built by his many-times-great-grandfather, Duke Xiao of Qin, Ying Quliang. After it was completed, Duke Xiao moved the capital from Yueyang (pronounced like 'yue-yang') to Xianyang. His son, Ying Si, succeeded him and proclaimed himself king – the first King of Qin, honored as King Huiwen of Qin. His concubine Mi Yue, nostalgic for the Zhanghua Palace in her home state of Chu, pestered him to build a high-quality replica. So King Huiwen built a Zhangtai Palace in Xianyang and moved in with Mi Yue. Later Qin kings further expanded Xianyang Palace. By the time Ying Zheng became King of Qin and conquered all under heaven, he began in his 35th year (212 BC) to build the true imperial palace, Epang Palace. So, the first proper imperial palace in true China was Epang Palace, but construction was unfinished when the Qin dynasty collapsed. After Liu Bang gained the Qin empire, he built his own palace on the site of Qin’s Zhangtai Palace, and it was completed – that was Weiyang Palace. This was the first fully built imperial palace in Chinese history, home to Western Han emperors for generations. 'Weiyang' in Western Han times meant 'ten thousand years' (long life), but with more poetic flavor, as from the Classic of Poetry: 'How is the night? The night is not yet done, the light of the torches in the courtyard.' Weiyang Palace was completed in the 9th year of Liu Bang’s reign (198 BC). Between the Western and Eastern Han, Wang Mang usurped power and used Weiyang Palace as his own. The Chimei-Green Wood forest heroes’ Gengshi army overthrew Wang Mang and burned down Weiyang Palace, then the world’s largest palatial complex. When Emperor Guangwu (Liu Xiu) reclaimed the realm, he made Luoyang his capital, using its existing Southern Palace as his imperial residence and also built the Northern Palace. By the time Emperor Yang of Sui moved the capital to Luoyang, the Southern and Northern Palaces had been destroyed; he built a new palace, Ziwei City, the largest imperial palace in Chinese history. Forget the world's largest – even the smallest Chinese palace was the world’s largest. Ziwei City covered 4.2 million square meters; today’s Forbidden City is 720,000 square meters; France’s Versailles Palace has 110,000 square meters of floor area.

After the Han dynasty, the Tang dynasty’s Daming Palace in Chang’an was also famous, at 3.2 million square meters. The Song dynasty’s palace in Bianliang (Kaifeng) wasn’t particularly famous, but its imperial garden, Genyue, became the most celebrated. Genyue was built by Emperor Huizong of Song in the 7th year of the Zhenghe era (AD 1117). The oldest surviving relics of an ancient palace garden all come from this park – the famous Genyue rocks. Many rockeries in Beijing’s imperial gardens are actually Genyue rocks brought from Bianliang.

From the Yuan dynasty onward, China’s capitals were all established in Beijing. If you count partial relocations, you’d have to start with the Jin dynasty’s Zhongdu (Central Capital). Beijing’s imperial palace is the only ancient emperor’s residence preserved to this day, remarkably intact. Although its scale is historically not huge, it is currently the largest imperial palace complex in the world.

Beijing first served as the capital of the state of Yan during the Western Zhou dynasty, but it couldn’t compare with the Zhou capital Haojing (near Xi’an). It wasn’t until the 5th year of the Tiande era of the Jin dynasty (AD 1153) that the Prince of Hailing, Wanyan Liang, moved the capital to Yanjing and made it the Central Capital, making Beijing a true imperial capital. The Jin Zhongdu city walls once stood just outside the southeastern corner of Beijing’s Second Ring Road; almost no trace remains, and even less of Hailingwang’s palace. One of the few surviving marks of Jin Zhongdu in Beijing is the place name 'Huichengmen' – this was a gate on the northern wall of Jin Zhongdu. If you walk south along Beifengwo Road, east of the former Ministry of Railways, for two bus stops, that place is called Huichengmen.

In the 10th year of Yuan Taizu (AD 1215), Genghis Khan’s general Muqali not only captured Jin Zhongdu but burned the city down. This year was also the 3rd year of Jin Zhenyou and the 8th year of Southern Song Jiading. Kublai Khan was born this year. Forty-five years later, in the 1st year of the Zhongtong era (1260), Kublai assumed the title of Great Khan of the Mongols. Another four years on, in the 1st year of the Zhiyuan era (1264), he decided on Beijing as the Great Capital (Dadu), founding the Yuan Empire. Since the Jin Zhongdu city had been destroyed, Kublai built his Dadu from scratch. The Yuan Dadu left behind not only the Tucheng ruins but also a founding monument, akin to a cornerstone, which I saw at Tuancheng in Beihai Park – the Dushan Dayuhai (a giant jade wine vessel, pronounced 'dushan dayuhai').

The first Ming emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang, had his palace in Nanjing. When Yongle Emperor Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing, he built a new palace essentially identical to the Nanjing Ming Palace. Actually, Zhu Yuanzhang had long wanted to move the capital north; his crown prince, Zhu Biao, went to Luoyang to assess the feasibility of a new capital, contracted an infection, and died soon after returning to Nanjing, in the ICU of his time. Zhu Yuanzhang saw this as heaven’s wrath and sorrowfully abandoned the relocation plan. In the 3rd year of the Hongwu era (1370), Zhu Yuanzhang enfeoffed his ten-year-old fourth son, Zhu Di, as the Prince of Yan. In the 9th year, Zhu Di married the eldest daughter of great general Xu Da. In the 13th year, the twenty-year-old Prince of Yan took up his fief and moved into Beijing. Of course, he couldn’t live in the Yuan imperial palace – wouldn’t that suggest he was trying to match his father’s stature? So Zhu Di promptly razed the Yuan palace and used its footprint and some building components to erect his princely residence. When he firmly decided to move the capital to Shuntian Prefecture (Beijing), building a new imperial palace was a must. That is the origin of today’s Forbidden City. Before Zhu Di, all Chinese emperors followed the pattern of 'the Son of Heaven dwelling at the center, with feudal lords guarding the borders' – the lords protected the emperor in their midst. By moving the capital to Beijing, Zhu Di inaugurated the Ming dynasty’s era of 'the Son of Heaven guarding the frontier.' When Zhu Yuanzhang’s armies overthrew the Yuan and drove back the Mongols, and when Zhu Di built his new palace in Beijing, the Americas, Australia, and Africa were still in primitive societies, and one-third of Europe’s population perished from the Black Death in the 'Dark Ages.' That was the global backdrop when the Ming palace rose – the Ming Empire was the world’s largest, most advanced dynasty, bar none.

Zhu Di mulled over moving the capital for many years before taking action. In the 1st year of the Yongle era (1403), he hinted to Yao Guangxiao that the Minister of Rites, surnamed Li, should propose making Beiping a secondary capital, and later set in motion the relocation debate. After quelling opposition, he spent a full decade assembling materials nationwide – timber and stone. The new palace didn’t begin full-scale construction until the 15th year of Yongle (1417), and it was completed in the 18th year (1420). The project manager Zhu Di personally appointed was Chen Gui, the Marquis of Taining. Building the palace in just four years shows the Chinese have been infrastructure maniacs since antiquity. Zhu Di not only built the capital, he also relocated hundreds of thousands of southerners to Beijing as 'Beijing drifters' of their day.

Ancient emperors saw themselves as Sons of Heaven descended to earth; the Heavenly Emperor lived in the Purple Subtlety Palace (Ziwei Gong) in the sky, so purple symbolized the celestial lord’s color. The emperor’s residence was naturally forbidden to commoners – a forbidden city, hence the name Purple Forbidden City (Zijin Cheng). The Ming construction of the Forbidden City defined a standard official architectural style and the ‘eight great crafts’ of Chinese architecture. The construction team of that era was the Xiangshan Guild from Suzhou, led by Kuai Xiang, known as 'Kuai Luban,' who rose to Vice Minister of Works. In the Qing period, the Lei family from Jiangxi oversaw imperial construction – the famed Yangshi Lei (Lei the Architects). The eight great crafts covered: earthwork, stonework, scaffolding, woodwork, tilework, oil-painting, polychrome painting, and paper mounting. On New Year’s Day of the 19th year of Yongle, Zhu Di presided over the grand opening ceremony, issuing 'The Edict for the Completion of the Capital’s Palaces.' The entire court, foreign envoys, and representatives of the capital’s populace – a hundred thousand people in all – entered the palace to offer congratulations and stroll through the front courtyards, exactly six hundred years before my own visit.

The character for 'gong' (palace) hasn’t changed much from oracle bone script to modern Chinese: at its core, an outer wall enclosing two courtyards. The wall was certainly to keep outsiders out and prevent palace maids from wandering off. The two courtyards represent the 'front court and rear living quarters.' Ordinary folks typically had just one courtyard; a standard Beijing siheyuan (courtyard residence) for commoners is called 'eight rooms': three north-facing main rooms, two east wing rooms, two west wing rooms, and one south-facing room backing onto the street – eight in total. Better-off families had five north rooms, three each for east and west wings, and two south rooms, making thirteen. Wealthy households could have several successive courtyards with even more rooms. According to ancient imperial observatory records, the Heavenly Emperor’s Purple Subtlety Palace had ten thousand rooms. Legend claims Zhu Di built his palace with half a room less – that is, 9,999½ rooms. There’s no archaeological evidence for this figure, and it’s not recorded in the official 'Veritable Records of the Ming'; it remains just a legend. When we say 'one room,' we refer to a space enclosed by four pillars and a roof. Over the centuries, the Forbidden City has seen renovations and demolitions; a 1970s survey counted 980 structures with 8,704 rooms. Even if over a thousand rooms are missing, whose residence can compare?

Zhu Di’s Purple Forbidden City originally referred to the entire Imperial City. It was only after the Jingtai Emperor (Zhu Qiyu) that 'Purple Forbidden City' came to specifically denote the Palace City, what is now the Forbidden City. In its six-hundred-year history since completion, the palace has suffered multiple fires. Despite near-complete rebuilding in the early Qing, parts are still rather dilapidated. In October 2002, a major centennial restoration project began, planned over nineteen years, aiming to be finished in time for the palace’s six-hundredth anniversary in 2020.

Let’s look at the gates of the Imperial City.

Yes, the main gate of the Imperial City is Tiananmen! During the Ming, it was called Chengtianmen, and it was essentially the same as the Chengtianmen of the Ming palace in Nanjing. 'Cheng tian' comes from the I Ching: 'How great is the primal power of Kun! The ten thousand things are born through it, and so it receives Heaven’s will in obedience.' When the Qing regent Dorgon entered Beijing, he rebuilt the palace gate and renamed it Tiananmen, meaning 'receiving the mandate from Heaven and securing the state.' Tiananmen is the largest surviving ancient city gate in the world. The platform is over sixty meters long, topped with a gate tower. The tower is nine bays wide and five bays deep, symbolizing the emperor’s supreme 'nine-five' majesty. It features a double-eave hip-and-gable roof covered in yellow glazed tiles, with bracket sets and post-and-beam structure; on the hip ridges stand nine guardian beasts, and it has front and rear colonnaded corridors. Standing under the eaves, you can look out. On October 1, 1949, it was from this open central bay and the balustrades of its front corridor that Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed to the world the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

A look inside the tower. The interior has forty main columns, plus two rows of eave columns front and back, making sixty in total. Above is a coffered ceiling decorated with gold-leaf dragon medallions on a flat grid, with the beams painted in gold double-dragon 'hexie' polychrome design – the highest rank of ornament. A palace lantern hangs at the center of each grid square; these lanterns are modern replicas.

This gate tower was rebuilt in 1969 based on the Shunzhi-era version. It strictly followed the original design, though due to component dimensions, the height increased by one meter. During the rebuilding, several cannonballs were unearthed from the platform – remnants from the Eight-Nation Alliance’s attack on the palace in 1900.

Standing on Tiananmen tower, you can look north to see several structures: first the side buildings behind the tower, then the Duanmen gate tower, and further back the Meridian Gate tower with its flanking swallow-wing towers.

Today, Tiananmen is the heart of our great motherland, a symbol of the People’s Republic of China, and part of the national emblem. On the gate are two slogans, the first being: 'Long live the People’s Republic of China.'

Between the double eaves of the tower hangs the national emblem, and at the center of the platform is a portrait of Chairman Mao. In front of Tiananmen flows the Golden Water River, spanned by the Golden Water Bridges. The river’s water does not come from heaven but from Jade Spring Hill in western Beijing. The most eye-catching features on the south bank are the two ornamental pillars (huabiao) to east and west, known to all Chinese.

The huabiao in front of Tiananmen are the highest-ranking extant in China. Huabiao originated from totem poles of ancient tribes, and the dragon totem became a symbol of the Chinese nation. Over time, they evolved into ornamental pillars, often placed at major crossroads to point the way. Four huabiao stand in front of and behind Tiananmen, symbolizing the emperor’s authority. The Tiananmen huabiao are carved entirely of white marble, resting on a square Sumeru pedestal with railings, and each corner of the railing is topped with a stone lion. The pillar is octagonal, with a relief carving of a soaring dragon spiraling upward amid clouds. At the upper end is a cloud-shaped panel, which points toward Chang’an Avenue. Above that is a dish for collecting dew, upon which sits a mythical beast called a shihou.

The most convenient way to enter the Forbidden City is via Tiananmen. Cross the outer Golden Water Bridge and pass through the gate’s archways to enter the former Imperial City. Tiananmen has five arched gateways; the central and largest was once reserved for the emperor. Now, every morning at sunrise, the national flag, escorted by the honor guard, marches out through this gate to be raised in the square. At sunset, after the flag is lowered, it is escorted back through the same gate. The flag-raising ceremony is the solemn ritual Chinese people love most; from the early hours, people from all over the country spontaneously gather in the square, waiting for sunrise. When the national anthem begins and the flag rises, thousands gaze upon it, hearts swelling, many moved to tears.

After entering Tiananmen, don’t forget to look back. Through the central gate, you can see the Monument to the People’s Heroes perfectly aligned in the distance – this is the central axis of Beijing.

Glance at the tower’s silhouette; the little beast at the lower left is a stone shihou from the huabiao inside the gate.

The Duke of Zhou established the 'Rites of Zhou,' which became the foundation of ancient ritual and music systems and a Confucian classic. During the Spring and Autumn period, as rituals collapsed, Confucius, descendant of the Shang kings, cried out for 'self-restraint and restoration of rites,' seeking to revive the Zhou rites. The Zhou rites regulated the ranks of rulers and the corresponding ceremonial standards, for instance, the Son of Heaven used nine ding and eight gui vessels, feudal lords seven ding and six gui, high officials five ding and four gui. According to the Zhou rites, the palace-city of a sovereign had five gates, while feudal lords had three. The five gates were: the Gao Gate (distant gate), Ku Gate (arsenal gate), Zhi Gate, Ying Gate, and Lu Gate. Tiananmen corresponds to the Zhou system’s Gao Gate – the far gate of the Imperial City.

Entering Tiananmen doesn’t yet bring you to the palace; between Tiananmen and the palace stands Duanmen.

Although Duanmen lies outside the palace walls, it is now part of the Palace Museum complex, with its signboard hanging on the tower. That signboard wasn’t there in the past – could it have been added after COVID-19? Previously, the front gate of the Forbidden City, the Meridian Gate, bore no name plaque; only the rear gate, the Gate of Divine Might, carried the 'Palace Museum' horizontal board. The Meridian Gate’s blank façade was meant to avoid breaking the historical ambience, but the problem was that visitors who reached the Meridian Gate didn’t know where the Palace Museum was. Foreigners call the Forbidden City the 'Forbidden City,' not the 'Late King’s Palace,' though the official foreign name is The Palace Museum.

Duanmen’s architectural form mirrors Tiananmen’s, just smaller. This is the best-preserved structure of the Imperial City; it’s said that an 'Account of Duanmen’s Construction' from the Kangxi reign still exists, a Yangshi Lei copy. Duanmen originally served as the emperor’s travel supply depot – a storehouse for the imperial procession paraphernalia, everything from weapons to banners, flags, drums, and musical instruments. When Zhu Di left the palace, these items would be displayed along the imperial way, stretching from Taihe Gate all the way to Tiananmen – a real show of force, called 'marching out in broad daylight with arms.' These ceremonial articles have a formal name that rarely gets mentioned: 'lubu,' which can sound like 'stewed egg' in Chinese, leading some to think it’s a kind of book. Before being transferred to the Palace Museum’s charge in 1999, Duanmen was a storehouse for the History Museum (now the National Museum of China). After the Palace Museum took over, some minor repairs were done; in 2015, it opened as a digital exhibition hall, screening Forbidden City animation films, accessible with free tickets. Between Tiananmen and Duanmen is the Duanmen Square, flanked north and south by gates, and with service rooms to east and west.

You can enter Duanmen through the central archway. Don’t dismiss it as just an ordinary gate opening. Look at the white marble Sumeru pedestal of the gate platform, carved with auspicious clouds and scrolling grass motifs – absolutely top-tier!

Duanmen corresponds to the Ku Gate of the Zhou system – the gate of the imperial arsenal. After passing Duanmen, you are almost at the main gate of the palace.

The Beijing imperial palace largely adopted the design of the Ming Palace in Nanjing, with the palace city roughly equal in length and width. Before Beijing’s palace, Zhu Yuanzhang also established a central capital in his home area of Fengyang, Anhui, and began building an imperial palace centered on his old home’s foundation. The Fengyang palace also used the Nanjing Ming Palace blueprints, just slightly bigger and with a similar layout. However, the Fengyang palace was an unfinished project – abandoned before it took shape. Had it continued, its area would have exceeded Beijing’s palace by around 100,000 square meters.

After the Ming dynasty, Dorgon led the Qing army into Beijing and brought the Shunzhi Emperor, Fulin, into the city. The Manchus had once built a palace in Shengjing (Shenyang), but it was barely superior to the Loyalty Hall Song Jiang had at Liangshan Marsh. The Shenyang Palace Museum we see today has been heavily rebuilt in recent years, far more elaborate than what Qianlong’s ancestors ever had, and barely resembles the original. Dorgon knew well that his people were, first, not infrastructure maniacs, and second, had no artistic flair; if they demolished the Ming palace, they could only build a shoddy imitation. So, Dorgon cheerfully settled the Qing court right into the Ming palace, intact, installing the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang and the six-year-old Shunzhi – who then had a second enthronement. To conveniently call on the emperor and visit the empress dowager, Dorgon took the Southern Park of the Eastern Garden, just across the street from the palace, as his personal princely residence. Thus, under Dorgon’s direction, the Qing dynasty inherited the Ming palace. That’s why we now call it the Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Beyond Duanmen, you glimpse the main gate of the palace – the Meridian Gate (Wumen), the grand entrance to the Forbidden City.

From the Meridian Gate onwards, the palace grounds officially become the 'Palace Museum,' and you must buy a ticket to enter. Take a close-up look at the Meridian Gate. In imperial protocol, the emperor faces south; this south-facing gate takes its name from the fact that the midday sun is in the south – hence it’s called the Meridian Gate, endowed with the purest yang energy.

The Meridian Gate is indisputably the highest-ranking and largest city gate in the country. Below is the bastion, above stands the gate tower, as prescribed. The bastion rests on a five-chi-high white marble Sumeru pedestal. The tower is nine bays wide and five bays deep, topped with a double-eave hipped roof covered in yellow glazed tiles – while Tiananmen and Duanmen both have double-eave hip-and-gable roofs. Each hip ridge bears nine guardian beasts; from front to back they are: dragon, phoenix, lion, heavenly horse, sea horse, xia fish, suanni lion, xiezhi unicorn, and bull. The main ridge is decorated with glazed chiwen (dragon-head ornaments). If you look carefully, you’ll notice that, starting from Tiananmen, all such ornaments on the main ridges of palace buildings have a sword stuck into the back of the chiwen – the sword of the Daoist immortal Xu Xun. In Ming-era folk style, the sword slanted outward; in Qing times, it stands upright – that’s one difference between Ming and Qing chiwen. Moreover, the Ming palace’s upright Xu Xun swords were short and stout, while Qing ones are slender and tall. Most roofs in the Forbidden City today were re-laid in the Qing with Qing-style chiwen; only a few spots retain Ming chiwen, such as the four corner towers. Xu Xun was a famous Jin-dynasty Daoist priest, honored as a Celestial Master, one of the Four Great Celestial Masters. He is famed for vanquishing a dragon-demon with his sword; placing his sword in the chiwen’s back is meant to ward off evil and suppress demons. The Meridian Gate tower has front and rear colonnaded corridors, and the latticework on doors and windows is of the 'three intersections, six bowls' pattern – an exclusively imperial motif. The horizontal beams carry 'double-dragon hexie' polychrome painting, also imperial. In front of the colonnade is a white marble balustrade.

Look at the colonnade: the tie beams under the eaves are not straight but curved in a bow shape, quite distinctive.

From the south-facing main gate, the bastion walls extend southward on both sides – these are the 'swallow wings.' The swallow-wing bastions naturally have towers, each side with thirteen bays, called the Swallow-Wing Towers. Chinese superstition differs from Western; they never shunned the number '13'.

At the front end of each swallow wing stands a square pavilion with colonnaded corridors, three bays wide, with a multi-eaved pointed-ridge roof. Researchers suggest that Zhu Di originally built these with double-eave saddle roofs, which were altered to pointed roofs during the Qing dynasty.

On the east and west sides of the Meridian Gate tower are two identical square pavilions, located at the northern ends of the swallow-wing towers; they are called the East and West Que Towers. The Que Towers house a drum and a bell, not for keeping watch but for other purposes. Exactly when to ring the bell or beat the drum had specific rules. I imagine that if enemies ever attacked the gate, drums could signal to charge and gongs to retreat – though the 'gong' referred to isn’t a bell. With these five towers, the Meridian Gate is also known as the 'Five Phoenix Tower.'

The projecting front section of a city gate is called a 'que,' and the concave layout of the Meridian Gate is known as a 'double-que gate.' The que gate style originates from the Zhou Rites; the main south gate of Ziwei City in Sui-Tang Luoyang was a que gate. The Meridian Gate corresponds to the Zhou system’s Zhi Gate – the gate of double que. Zhi means vermilion bird, a mythical fowl akin to a phoenix, not a real creature.

The Meridian Gate has three arched portals. From the outside, they appear square; from the inside, round – symbolizing the round heaven and square earth, and the principle that 'under the vast heaven, all is the king’s land.' The central portal was exclusively for the emperor; a prospective empress could enter through it by palanquin for her wedding; the top three scorers of the palace examination could exit through it into the world. Other ministers used the side portals: imperial princes and the royal clan used the western one, other officials the eastern one. There are also hidden 'armpit gates' in the side recesses; during major events, minor functionaries would use these. Now, however, common people, corporate employees, and civil servants all use the central portal. The armpit gates are off-limits – they lead to the Forbidden City staff’s workarea.

Once inside, take a look at the Meridian Gate from the rear.

On the east and west sides behind the Meridian Gate, there are zigzag horse ramps. Though called horse ramps, people can only walk up them – not to be oxen or horses. After climbing up, besides seeing those bow-shaped tie beams under the colonnade, you can stand in the center of the tower platform. That spot was once the emperor’s vantage point; no dragon throne is placed there now, and nobody is allowed to lord it over from there. From here, you can gaze down at the Meridian Gate courtyard, though the scene today – cheerful crowds – is entirely different from what the emperor would have seen.

The gate straight ahead is not Tiananmen but Duanmen, lying between Tiananmen and the Meridian Gate. There’s a square before Tiananmen, before Duanmen, and before the Meridian Gate – historically these have all been public spaces. In addition to the que gates, the Meridian Gate courtyard has two side gates set into the row of side buildings: the Left Que Gate (Quezuomen) and Right Que Gate (Queyoumen). The Left Que Gate faces the west gate of the Beijing Labor People’s Cultural Palace, and the Right Que Gate faces the east gate of Zhongshan Park. During the pandemic, Tiananmen was closed, so the Palace Museum advised visitors to walk along the eastern outer wall from Donghuamen to the Left Que Gate to enter the Forbidden City.

Outside both Left and Right Que Gates stand 'dismount stele' inscribed in Manchu, Han, and Mongolian: 'Officials and others must dismount here.' This is an artifact from the Shunzhi reign of the Qing dynasty.

In the past, emperors rarely climbed the Meridian Gate tower. Even if enemies really reached its foot, the emperor would not stay to command the defense – he would have fled long before. Occasionally, a eunuch would ascend with an imperial edict and proclaim: 'By the Mandate of Heaven, the Emperor decrees...'; this was considered a public announcement, although there was no crowd below, not even representatives of the capital’s populace. Another rare occasion for the emperor to ascend the gate was after a victorious campaign, when the returning army held a grand triumph ceremony. The general would kneel hundreds or thousands of captives before the Meridian Gate; the emperor, seated on the tower, would accept the victory and the prisoners. If the emperor, in a fit of joy, shouted 'Pardon!', those captives would scramble to their feet and vanish. In the 25th year of Qianlong (1760), after suppressing the Dzungar and Altishahr rebellions, such a ceremony took place at the Meridian Gate. Following the campaign, Qianlong took a Khotan woman as his consort – Rong Fei, the legendary 'Fragrant Concubine.'

If a minister angered the emperor in court, the emperor might order twenty strokes of the heavy bamboo – a penalty called caning. A eunuch would lead the minister out through the Meridian Gate, followed by eunuchs wielding staves. On the east side of the imperial way outside the gate stood a butcher’s block used by civilians. The minister would be pinned down, trousers removed, and the eunuchs would bring the staves down on his buttocks. Sometimes, an elderly or frail minister would die from the beating. Commoners outside, hearing shouts and seeing a covered cart emerge, would say someone was 'dragged out through the Meridian Gate for beheading.' In reality, beheadings, if they occurred, were never at the Meridian Gate. The condemned were first thrown into prison, then executed at the Vegetable Market (Caishikou) after the autumn assizes.

The Zhou Rites prescribe a layout of 'five gates and three courts' for the palace. When Zhu Di built his palace, he followed this system, which was also copy-pasted from the Nanjing Ming Palace. The five gates were Chengtianmen, Duanmen, Wumen (Meridian Gate), Fengtianmen, and Qianqingmen. In front of Chengtianmen originally stood Damingmen (Great Ming Gate), later renamed Daqingmen (Great Qing Gate) in the Qing dynasty, located between the Monument to the People’s Heroes and Chairman Mao’s Mausoleum; it was demolished in 1954. According to Yangshi Lei’s drawings of the palace axis, the space between Daqingmen and Tiananmen in the Qing was a broad avenue with the imperial way in the center and rows of service buildings flanking it from south to north – that was Tiananmen Square.

In the past, the Meridian Gate tower was closed to the public. After Mr. Shan Jixiang became director of the Palace Museum, the tower opened as an exhibition hall for themed exhibitions. In 2020, it hosted 'Eternal Splendor of the Forbidden City,' commemorating the 600th anniversary of its construction. This exhibition included artifacts from the Nanjing Ming Palace and the abandoned Fengyang Ming Zhongdu palace, offering a prelude to the Beijing Forbidden City. See: a gilded Buddhist brick from the Nanjing palace.

And a glazed immortal figure from the ridge of Fengyang’s palace.

A painting that Zhu Di had commissioned, showing his grand residence as a fairyland.

The Hall of Mental Cultivation (Yangxin Dian) is currently under major renovation and closed to visitors. Its main hall’s throne has been placed on display here; it was previously exhibited at the Capital Museum. Look closely at the gilded enamel mythical beast luduan in front of the throne—'luduan' means a single-horned creature (lu meaning 'deer'). This auspicious beast was said to have vanished since the time of Qin Shihuang, reappearing only when an enlightened sovereign ruled. Ming and Qing emperors all considered themselves enlightened, yet never glimpsed the beast; so they placed its effigy before them, feigning its divine presence.

Also hanging here is the paper plaque inscribed 'Sanxitang' (Hall of Three Rarities) by Qianlong, from the south daybed of the West Warm Chamber in the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

The 'Yangxin Dian Bao' (Seal of the Hall of Mental Cultivation) jade seal.

Imperial brushes’ seals: the one below is Emperor Xianfeng’s 'Xianfeng yubi zhi bao' (Treasure of Xianfeng’s Imperial Brush). I didn’t notice Qianlong’s, but I’ve seen the plaque ‘Qinzheng Dian’ (Hall of Diligent Governance) at Fragrant Hills, with Qianlong’s seal 'Qianlong yubi zhi bao' (Treasure of Qianlong’s Imperial Brush). That plaque is a lavish gilded fighting-dragon board with five carved golden coiling dragons, more luxurious than ordinary palace plaques. The Shenyang Palace Museum houses a Qing-era 'Purple Qi from the East' nine-dragon golden plaque – but that’s a horizontal plaque, not the vertical 'dou' plaque style.

An empress’s robe: bright yellow was exclusively imperial; anyone else wearing it committed an act of usurpation.

There were other treasures on display, like the 'Jin’ou Yonggu Cup' (Forever Solid Gold Cup). Designed and commissioned by Qianlong, it’s a three-legged libation cup shaped with elephant tusks and a trunk. Three solid gold and one gilded copper version were made; now the Palace Museum in Beijing has one gold, the Taipei Palace Museum one gold, and the Wallace Collection in London has one gold and one copper, though I didn’t see it on display there. The rim is engraved with 'Jin’ou yonggu' ('May the golden goblet be forever secure') on the front, and 'Made in the Qianlong era' on the back. 'Ou' is a wine cup; 'jin’ou' is a metaphor for the national territory. Chairman Mao once wrote: 'We gather the pieces of the golden goblet, busily dividing land and fields.'

Before the pandemic, you could access the city wall from the Meridian Gate tower; now it’s closed. From here you can see the parapet wall and the battlements (merlons and crenels).

Take a look at the bricks of the Forbidden City’s wall.

Zhu Di’s palace walls were originally plain like this; later generations added plaster and red paint. These are called 'Linqing tribute bricks.' Linqing is in Shandong, right on the Grand Canal. Back then, Linqing was known for two things: Shandong clapper ballads and 'tribute bricks.' Linqing’s special clay yields a dense, hard-fired brick that was shipped exclusively to the capital for building imperial walls – hence the name tribute bricks. Look at those bricks: sharp edges, a quality resembling bluestone. Modern bricks with a hardness of 70 are considered good; someone tested the Forbidden City bricks and found hardnesses above 100, some reaching 150. Tests on ancient bricks from Linqing’s Shelita Pagoda recorded a maximum over 200. Ordinary household cement nowadays has a strength grade of 200, so these Linqing tribute bricks are truly remarkable! The mortar between the bricks is a mixture of lime paste and rice soup – a 'soup' that bonded the bricks to create a city wall and moat that was 'as solid as gold and boiling water' (gu ruo jin tang). The 'gold' refers to the city within the wall, the 'tang' to the boiling moat around it.

The Forbidden City’s official southern entrance is the Meridian Gate; the northern rear gate is the Gate of Divine Prowess (Shenwumen), originally named Xuanwumen, after the Dark Warrior (Xuanwu) who guards the north. After the Kangxi reign of the Qing, it was renamed Shenwumen to avoid the taboo of the Kangxi Emperor’s personal name, Xuanye.

On October 10, 1925, the newly established Palace Museum opened to the public, holding its inauguration ceremony at Qianqingmen Square. The horizontal plaque reading 'Palace Museum' hung at Shenwumen that day was penned by Mr. Li Yuying (Li Shizeng), a calligraphy student of the late-Qing calligrapher Wang Faliang. Li was then the chairman of the 'Committee for the Disposition of the Qing Imperial Household,' the forerunner of the Palace Museum. Initially, Shenwumen served as the main entrance of the Palace Museum. The current plaque was inscribed by Mr. Guo Moruo in 1971. Let’s see a photo of the Palace Museum entrance in 1925.

In the 13th year of the Republic (1924), the abdicated emperor Puyi was expelled from the palace. Subsequently, the Committee for the Disposition of the Qing Imperial Household carried out a full inventory of palace relics. In fact, this inventory only covered the inner court beyond Qianqingmen, the area Puyi had just vacated; the outer court had been under the control of the Institute for Exhibiting Antiquities since 1914. The inventory tallied over 1,150,000 artifacts – just from the inner court. Through all dynasties, Chinese emperors amassed the realm’s treasures into their palaces, only for them to be burned and destroyed at dynastic changes. Though new treasures continued to be produced, ancient heirlooms grew ever rarer. To name just a few losses: Qin Shihuang’s imperial jade seal is gone; Wang Xizhi’s 'Preface to the Orchid Pavilion' is gone; Gu Kaizhi’s 'Nymph of the Luo River' is gone, too. Countless Qing artifacts were lost or destroyed. The first large-scale destruction and looting occurred in 1860 at the Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) – the Anglo-French forces pillaged its treasures; even the lowliest mess cooks came away with priceless Chinese heirlooms for their grandchildren back home. The last great loss in the Qing was the 1923 fire at Jianfu Palace, after which many antique shops opened on Yandaixie Street, run by former eunuchs. During Puyi’s reign in the inner court before his expulsion, he also spirited a fair number of treasures to his brother Pujie’s home, some of which were sold to fund restoration intrigues – though not on the earlier scale. So when the committee’s inventory was done, only 1.15 million objects were counted; the actual number lost or looted since the Qing must have been several times that. Preserving even this haul amid the chaos of warlord strife and the War of Resistance against Japan was incredibly hard. In the history of safeguarding the Forbidden City’s relics and the Palace Museum itself, we should remember these figures: Chairman Li Yuying, Standing Committee member Chen Yuan, Inspector Zhuang Yungao, Peking University President Cai Yuanpei, PKU Archaeology Research Office Director Ma Heng, the Palace Museum’s first director Yi Peiji, and antiquities expert Wu Ying. Thanks to their efforts, the world’s largest palace complex has survived intact, a source of national pride.

Before his expulsion, Puyi transferred a large number of relics. After he left, these traveled with him to Changchun. When the war ended, he was captured in Shenyang while on the run with part of the collection, which went to the Liaoning Provincial Museum. Some relics left in Changchun filtered into private hands and eventually appeared in antique shops on Beijing’s Liulichang Street. During the war, a vast number of Forbidden City treasures were evacuated south; many eventually ended up at the Taipei Palace Museum. After the founding of the PRC, the new government collected scattered Palace Museum artifacts from the public, and many collectors donated to the museum, including Li Yuying, Ma Heng, and Zhang Boju. By the time Mr. Shan Jixiang served as director in the 21st century, the museum’s collection had grown to 1.8 million pieces. Additionally, some Qing court treasures remain in the Liaoning Provincial Museum, while those that went abroad are beyond counting.

In 2002, a major restoration of the Forbidden City began with a budget of 2 billion yuan; it was the largest renovation since the catastrophic fire in the 14th year of the Guangxu reign (1888). The work isn’t entirely finished; only a few individual halls are still undergoing repairs. Post-renovation, the Forbidden City looks refreshed, yet subtle historical traces remain. During a visit, you can see the vicissitudes of six centuries while glimpsing how it appeared when brand new.

Shenwumen, though also topped with a double-eave hipped roof and yellow glazed tiles, is much smaller than the Meridian Gate – only five bays wide and three bays deep, with only seven beasts on the hip ridges. The horizontal beams are decorated not with hexie polychrome painting but with 'xuanzi' (immature) pattern; it’s said the roof frame still dates from the early Ming. Shenwumen’s three arched portals are also round inside and square outside.

Through the portals, you can see Wanchun Pavilion on Jingshan Hill directly behind.

Standing before Wanchun Pavilion, you can grasp the whole layout of the Forbidden City, though usually the view isn’t very clear.

We all know Beijing's central axis runs from Yongdingmen to the Drum Tower, right through the heart of the Forbidden City. But do you know where the exact center of Beijing is? It’s right at Wanchun Pavilion on Jingshan Hill – there’s a marker for 'Beijing City Center' there.

As mentioned, Shenwumen is essentially the back door of the Forbidden City, used for daily comings and goings: delivering grain and meat, water carts from Jade Spring Hill, coal carts from Mentougou. Palace maids could receive family visits here, embracing and sobbing. When selecting ladies for the palace, candidates also passed through this gate. The most important figures to use it were the empress and the imperial consorts. Each spring, the court held two major sacrificial rituals: the emperor led one to the Temple of Agriculture (Xiannong Tan), whose 'one mou and three fen of land' refers to the plot he personally plowed. The other was led by the empress, who departed via Shenwumen to Beihai’s Altar of the Silkworm (Xiancan Tan) to perform the ‘kissing the silkworm’ ceremony. These rites embodied the Chinese cultural ideal of 'men plow, women weave,' with the chief pair demonstrating to the people the source of all clothing and food – the taxes paid on farming and sericulture.

Only one emperor in history ever used Shenwumen: the last emperor, Puyi. On November 5, 1924, Feng Yuxiang staged the Beijing Coup and sent his subordinates into the palace from the Meridian Gate to 'assist' Puyi out. That day, the abdicated Puyi was expelled through this very gate – though by then he was no longer emperor. The Chongzhen Emperor of the Ming, on his way to the large pagoda tree in Jingshan, did not go through Xuanwumen (Shenwumen) but the Donghuamen.

Shenwumen also houses a bell and drum tower. Every evening at dusk, the bell was struck, then the drum was beaten to announce the first night watch. At dawn, the bell rang again, closing the watches – the classic 'morning bell and evening drum.' The night was divided into five watches, each heralded by drumbeats. The precise timing was determined by specialists dispatched from the Imperial Observatory’s Directorate of Astronomy.

The Purple Forbidden City naturally needed gates on the east and west as well. The eastern gate is Donghuamen. Architecturally, Donghuamen and Shenwumen are similar, though Donghuamen seems slightly smaller. In the past, senior officials entered the palace through this gate – not all officials, but cabinet members and the most senior of the first and second ranks. Naturally, a dismount stele stood outside. Donghuamen directly faces the Imperial City’s Dong’anmen; officials living outside the Imperial City would first pass through Dong’anmen, then Donghuamen to enter the palace – quite a short distance. Follow Dong’anmen Street to its eastern end, and there was a large market called Dong’an Market, named for its proximity to Dong’anmen. It opened in the 29th year of Guangxu (1903); whether the imperial house had a stake, I don’t know.

Besides living ministers, Donghuamen also saw the passage of 'cool' emperors. Not literally cool – when the reigning emperor passed away and became the 'greatly departed emperor,' his body, after lying in state at Qianqinggong for a set number of days, would be taken out through this gate before it grew cold. From there, the coffin usually went to the Hall of Imperial Longevity (Shouhuangdian) or the Hall of Observing Virtue (Guandedian) in Jingshan for a period, then onward to its final destination. Therefore, common folk also called Donghuamen the 'Ghost Gate,' without any disrespect intended. Some say this is why the door nails on Donghuamen are one row fewer than on other gates. Other gates have nine rows by nine columns; Donghuamen has eight rows by nine columns. I figure fewer nails means a wider door, more convenient for carrying a 'cool' emperor out lying down. Living emperors, when sneaking out of the palace incognito – not in a Western suit and tie but in casual outdoor gear and large sunglasses – might also use Donghuamen. Another theory attributes the eight-by-nine nail pattern to fengshui concepts. According to the Eight Trigrams, Donghuamen lies in the Zhen position, associated with wood. What does fewer door nails have to do with wood? I suspect it was a designer’s mistake; by the time Zhu Di noticed, it was too late to fix, so the designer was tossed into the Tongzi River to silence the matter forever, and the secret was eventually lost. Thus people thought the nail reduction had some divine or ghostly origin. The Bagua map orientation differs from ours; it’s from the emperor’s perspective. Since the emperor faced south, his view had south at the top, north at the bottom, left as east, right as west – opposite our usual maps.

Actually, once inside Donghuamen you’re at the residence of the Crown Prince of the Ming dynasty; this was the prince’s exclusive gate. Being lower in rank than the Meridian Gate used by the Son of Heaven, it naturally had one fewer row of nails. In the 16th year of the Zhengde reign (1521), the Zhengde Emperor Zhu Houzhao died without issue. Under the Empress Dowager Zhang’s decree, his cousin, Zhu Houcong, the Prince of Xing, was to succeed. When Zhu Houcong arrived at Xuanwumen Gate outside the capital, the ritual minister told him protocol demanded he enter via Donghuamen, ascend the crown prince’s seat in Wuying Hall, and then proceed to the throne. Zhu Houcong refused: 'I’ve come to be emperor, not crown prince. How can I enter through a gate with one less row of nails? I want the main gate.' He stood there, arms akimbo, refusing to budge as onlookers gathered and officials dared not push him. Finally, after the Empress Dowager consented, he strutted in through Zhengyangmen, then north via Damingmen and the Meridian Gate into the palace, and ascended the throne at what was then Fengtiandian (now Taihe Dian), taking the reign name Jiajing. More protocol disputes followed: the late Zhengde Emperor’s empress was Zhu Houcong’s cousin’s widow; he refused to honor her as Empress Dowager, eventually granting her the title 'Zhuangsu Empress.' He should have been grateful to her – had she borne a son, Zhu Houcong would never have become emperor. He also posthumously honored his own father, Prince Xing, as Emperor Ruizong Xian, though with no reign year but a spirit tablet placed in the Imperial Ancestral Temple, even ahead of the Zhengde Emperor. His father’s tomb was upgraded from prince’s to emperor’s rank, called Xianling, in Hubei. Though his father never reigned, his mother comfortably became Empress Dowager Jiang. This whole ritual controversy wasn’t really about titles or which gate to use; it was to declare that he had assumed the throne legitimately, not just lucked into it as a 'throw-in' emperor.

Since there’s an eastern Donghuamen, surely there’s a western Xihuamen? Indeed, there is. Look at Xihuamen. It’s identical in form and size to Donghuamen, but Xihuamen doesn’t face Xi’anmen directly; Xi’anmen lies further north. Outside Xihuamen was the Western Garden of the Ming, which is today’s Zhongnanhai. The emperor would use this gate to go enjoy the Western Garden, sometimes taking his consorts along.

The palace’s four gates vary in size and form, each with its own typical function. Connecting them, of course, are the city walls, and outside the walls runs the moat – now called Tongzi River.

The Tongzi riverside is a relaxation spot for Beijingers – a place to practice tai chi, munch sunflower seeds, and so on. Some even fish. In spring, as the poet Lu You described, 'Spring fills the city, willows by the palace wall.' In autumn, the scene turns to 'blue water, paths carpeted with yellow leaves.'

Since the walls are rectangular, there are four corners. At each corner of the three-zhang-high Forbidden City wall stands a corner tower. Let’s look at the southwest corner tower.

The northwest corner tower – many people love to photograph it, and I took a picture too. Many also like to capture the sunset from the northeast tower; I’ve joined that crowd. Looking up from below, it’s a 'sea of people.'

Let’s examine this beautiful corner tower closely. According to ancient lore, these four towers mark the 'Horn' (Jiao) mansion of the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions. All four are identical: a square pavilion resting on a white marble Sumeru pedestal, three bays wide, surrounded by marble balustrades. From each side of the pavilion, which has a single-eave cross-shaped hip-and-gable roof with golden yellow glazed tiles, a portico extends – longer on the inner wall side, shorter on the outer. The roof’s apex has a gilded inverted-bowl finial with a treasure knob. The porticos have double-eave hip-and-gable roofs. A single corner tower has an extraordinary number of ridges: just main ridges count two per face, upper and lower, eight in total. Vertical ridges: four per face on both levels, sixteen total. Hip ridges: six per face on both upper and lower levels, twenty-four total; plus eight more at the lower corners. Add three encircling ridges on each face (twelve total), and you can count up to seventy-two ridges on one tower. Amazing! It’s famed as having 'nine beams, eighteen pillars, and seventy-two ridges' – the most structurally complex building in the Forbidden City. They say the interior has no vertical support columns, meaning it’s a feat of beam-frame construction using column-reduction techniques. It’s utterly magical; I wonder if this design appears in the Song-dynasty 'Yingzao Fashi' (Building Standards)? The Palace Museum once held an architecture exhibition in a corner tower; when it reopens, I’ll definitely go. These four towers still retain their early Ming framework. Look carefully at the chiwen on the main ridge: notice the Xu Xun sword on its back – short and stout? That’s an original Ming chiwen, a rare sight today.

Where did the security guards of the ancient Forbidden City’s gates and walls live? What you can still see is a row of single-story buildings and courtyards just inside Shenwumen, called the Eastern Long Buildings. Here’s a view of one gate.

That row now houses the Cultural and Creative Experience Pavilion, exhibiting splendid items inspired by the Museum’s collection. If you have some spare cash, you can even take one home.

The space enclosed by this circuit of walls is where the imperial halls, terraces, and pavilions stand. More to come.

(To be continued)